Foot-guard for railroad-tracks.



No. 638,292. Patented Dec. 5, I899. P. J. STOCKINGER.

' FOOT GUARD FOR RAILROAD TRACKS.

(Application filed Nov. 22, 1898.)

m: NORM! IETLRS ca. Pmoumm WASHINCTON u r its PHILIP JAMES STOGKINGER, OF OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA.

FOOT-GUARD FOR RAILROAD-TRACKS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 638,292, dated December 5, 1899.

Application filed November 22, 1898. Serial No. 697,187. (No model.)

To all whom, it may concern.-

Be it known that I, PHILIP JAMES STOCK- INGER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Oakland, in the county of Alameda and State of California, have invented a new and useful Foot-Guard for Railroad*Tracks, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to a foot-guard for railroad-tracks, and is particularly designed for use in connection with rail-frogs and guardrails to prevent the catching of pedestrians feet in the frogs or between the track-rails and guard-rails. It is a common source of accident that switchmen in crossing tracks in the discharge of their duties catch their feet in the convergent portions or elements of the track-rails and are unable to liberate them in time to avoid danger; and it is the object of my invention to provide a simple and improved device in the form of an attachment which may be applied to those portions of a track where the elements are disposed convergently, said device being adapted to support the pedestrian and prevent the foot from becoming wedged between the track elements and being so constructed as to house and protect the yielding or resilient element.

Further objects and advantages of this invention will appear in the following description, and the novel features thereof will be particularly pointed out in the appended claim.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective view of a rail-crossing frog, showing a foot guard constructed in accordance with my invention applied in operative position thereto. Fig. 2 is a similar View showing the device applied to a guard-rail. Fig. 3 is a side view of the foot-guard, showing in full and in dotted lines, respectively, the normal and depressed positions of the guard. Fig. 4 is a detail view in perspective of the foot-guard detached.

Similar reference characters indicate corresponding parts in all the figures of the drawings.

The foot-guard embodying my invention consists of a rigid or non-yielding tongue 1, which is tapered or suitably constructed to fit between the adjacent portions of track elements, as between the frog 2 and the adjacent and guard-rail 5, as shown in Fig. 2, and said tongue is movably mounted upon a fixed support, such as a tie, for swinging movement in a vertical plane, and is adapted to be yieldingly held in its normal or elevated position by means of a spring. In the drawings I have shown a leaf orplate spring 6, secured at one end tothe underside of the tongue and bearing terminally upon a wear-plate 7, whereby as the free end of the tongue is depressed the free extremity of the spring slides upon the wear-plate until the extremity of the tongue strikes a fixed object, such as said wear-plate, or the flanges of the adjacent track elements or rails. Any other suitable form of spring may, however, be employed in this relation.

At an intermediate point the tongue 1 is provided with an approximately flat tread portion, which when the tongue is in its nor mal position is disposed parallel with the railtreads and approximately in the plane of and flush with the upper surfaces of the rail-treads,

and the portions of the tongue extending in opposite directions from this tread portion are deflected or inclined downwardly, respec tively, toward the point of support and the extremity of the tongue. Also in practice the extremity orfree end of the tongue is arranged at the narrowest portion of the interval between the track elements and is of slightlygreater width than the interval between the adjacent opposite tread portions of the track elements, whereby an effort to raise the free end of the tongue to carry the tread portion thereof above the plane of the rail-treads is resisted by the contact of the free end of the tongue with the under sides of the rail-treads.

In practice the tongue is hingedly mounted upon a securing-plate 8, adapted to be fastened to a tie or other fixed support by means of bolts, screws, or equivalent devices, and the pintle of the hinge 'may consist of a removable bolt 9, by' the disengagement of which the tongue is released to permit the removal of accumulations of dirt from beneath.

the tongue.

The spring orother yielding supporting device for the tongue is preferably of such a tension as to support the weight of a person up to, say, two hundred and twenty-'five pounds, but insufficient to resist the downward pressure of rolling-stock traversing the track, and as the downwardly inclined or de* flected terminal portions of the tongue form cams the flange of a wheel is adapted to ride freely thereover and depress the tongue with-" out being appreciably obstructed in its passage. Should, however, the weight applied to a tongue be sufficient to depress the same, such depression will be limited by the contact of the free end of the tongue with .a fixed stop consisting either of the wear-plate, the surface of a tie, or the lower flanges of the adjacent track elements or rails, according to the interval between the track elements.

It is desirable to so arrange the parts of the guard embodying my invention as to limit the amplitude of movement of the tread portion 1 to the depth of the rail-tread, so that when the tongue is in its normal or elevated position said tread portion thereof will be flush with the upper surface of the rail-tread, and when the tongue is depressed to the limit of its movement controlled by the contact of the extremity thereof with the fixed stop said tread portion 1'" will not be below the lower surface'of the rail-tread to prevent the engagement of any portion of the shoe of a pedestrian between the under surface of the rail-tread and the tread portion of the tongue. To accomplish this, I have, as above indicated, employed a rigid tongue which is yieldingly held in its elevated position by means of a .subjacent spring and have located the free end of the tongue at a point sufficiently remote from the tread portion thereof to traverse the distance between the under side of the rail-tread and the base-flange of the rail or the tie, while the horizontal tread portion 1 of the tonguemoves through a distance equal to the depth of the rail-tread. Obviously this operation will be possible, owing to the fact that the extremity of the tongue is arranged at a greater distance from the fulcrum or hinge of the tongue than is said tread portion 1, and the difference between these distances can be regulated, according to the relation between the height of the rail and the depth of therail'tread, to secure the operation described. In addition, however, to the above advantage the rigid tongue is desirable from the fact that it is more durable and is not by repeated bending liable to break, and thus to be rendered useless, while the yielding member, consisting of the spring 6 or the equivalent thereof, is arranged beneath the tongue, and is thus housed and protected by the tongue and the adjacent rails, rapid accumulations of dirt, dust, cinders, snow and ice, &c., in proximity to the spring being prevented by the overhanging tongue, which is of greater area than the spring and is provided with the downwardly deflected or inclined terminal portions, which form watersheds.

It will be seen from the foregoing description that the device embodying myinvention is adapted to particularly prevent the engagement of the foot of a pedestrian between the adjacent, usually convergent, portions of track elements, and thus prevent those accidents which are due to such engagement.

The usual filling-block 10, of wood, metal, or analogous material, may be arranged between the convergent rails forming the frog or at those points not traversed by the wheelflanges, as in the ordinary practice; but it is obvious that to arrange a guard flush or approximately fiush with the upper surfaces of the rail-treads and those sides of the rail elements which are traversed by the wheelflanges means must be adopted to allow thedepression of the guards by said wheel-flanges.

Various changes in the form, proportion, and the minor details of construction may be resorted to without departing from the spirit or sacrificing any of the advantages of the invention.

Having described my invention, What I claim is A foot-guard for railroad-tracks having a rigid tongue provided with an intermediate horizontal surfaced tread portion and oppositely-declining terminal portions, a-securingplate, a removable hinge-pin hingedly connecting one end of raid tongue to the securing-plate, the other end of the tongue being arranged between fixed objects for limiting the amplitude of vibration of said tread portion to the depth of the rail-treads, and a spring housed beneath the tongue for maintaining the latter in its elevated position.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own I have hereto affixed my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

PHILIP JAMES STOCKINGER.

Witnesses:

RIoH. L. LENZ, GEoE. DE GOLIA. 

